Reviews & Analysis

There remains an urgent need to develop new strategies and therapies to help protect the brain from ischemic cell death. In this perspective, the authors suggest that learning more about the mechanisms that underlie brain self-preservation and developing multifaceted approaches that act on multiple pathways involved in both cell death and neuroprotection may advance our efforts to treat stroke.

Brain tumor stem cells (BTSCs) stimulate angiogenesis and may also directly contribute to tumor vasculature. The authors review the codependence of BTSCs and the perivascular niche and how this may inform new therapeutic approaches.

We can efficiently and rapidly recognize daily-life visual settings. A study finds that scene recognition involves the posterior object-selective visual cortex, where multiple within-scene objects are represented in parallel.

A study finds that recall of fear-provoking memory changes the surface levels of AMPA receptors in the dorsal hippocampus. Inhibition of AMPA receptor trafficking strengthens the memory and results in excessive fear.

Engrailed, a homeobox transcription factor that is crucial for neuronal development, is now shown to regulate mitochondrial complex I and to be critical for the survival, protection and physiology of adult dopamine neurons.

Few brain regions' functions have been debated as intensely as those of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. A computational model now suggests that seemingly diverse cingulate responses may be explained by a single construct, 'negative surprise', which occurs when actions do not produce the expected outcome.

How does the brain represent space as a terrestrial animal moves in three dimensions? A study suggests that the vertical dimension is encoded with less precision than the horizontal plane.

In a model of multiple sclerosis, tracing the fates of peripheral myeloid cells versus microglia fingers the peripheral cells in paralysis onset. Despite vigorous accumulation, peripheral cells disappear after disease resolution.

CB₂ receptors, expressed mainly by immune cells in the periphery, are thought to be minimally involved in cannabinoid signaling in brain. However, a study now finds that brain CB₂ receptors may be central to cocaine addiction.

Photo-inactivation of RIBEYE, an important presynaptic protein at ribbon synapses in the retina, reveals a new role for ribbons in the vesicle priming process.

Knowledge is not just power. Even if advance information can not influence an upcoming event, people (and animals) prefer to know ahead of time what the outcome will be. According to the firing patterns of neurons in the lateral habenula, from the brain's perspective, knowledge is also water—or at least its equivalent in terms of reward.

The authors analyze a large corpus of the neuroscience literature and demonstrate that nearly half of the published studies considered incorrectly compared effect sizes by comparing their significance levels.

A study now finds early memory impairment in a mouse model of amyloid β43 (Aβ43)-overproducing familial Alzheimer's disease and suggests that this overlooked amyloidogenic Aβ species contributes to pathology.

To best interpret new sensory information, populations of sensory neurons must represent the lessons of past experience. How do they do this? The same solution to this problem is now reported in two very different sensory systems, providing a classic example of computational convergence.

A study identifies mechanisms responsible for the inability to form new myelin after neonatal hypoxia. It identifies Axin2 as a potential therapeutic target for reversing the 'differentiation block' of oligodendrocyte-lineage cells.

Controversy surrounds the suggestion that recursion is a uniquely human computational ability that enables language. A study now finds this ability in a songbird and takes steps toward a model system for syntactic competence.